An Officer and an artist

We are so thrilled to announce a new artist in the Divine Crosses family. 

Jamey will be debuting her beautifully painted crosses on the new Divine Christmas page coming next week!!!

Jamey is a Retired with Disability NYPD Officer. She is now a very Full-time Mom and awesome part time artist. We are proud to know her and her family and are very honored to have this opportunity to work with her. 

Jamey did not always want to serve in the NYPD.  Even in college she still wasn’t sure what direction she wanted to go in life. Then came September 11, 2001. After that horrific day, she along with many of her fellow students felt that calling from deep inside to rush in and help. She and her fellow students had even packed their bags were ready to go until their professor asked them all not to leave. He advised them to finish their degrees and to then rush in when they were fully trained and that’s how they could make the biggest impact and difference. 

Many of her fellow students took law enforcement jobs elsewhere, but she wanted to go back home and serve her fellow New Yorkers. She even turned down a job with NCIS in New England to do so. 

I wish I could tell you just a handful of the stories that I’ve been told of her time serving. If I did you would be reading the stories for days! 

The best part of her stories though is that so many others are still telling their stories because she went above and beyond countless times to help them. She always rushed in to help and many times she slowed down to sit on ledges with people who were mentally hurt. 

She was injured on the job multiple times, yet kept returning to serve the people of New York City for a hard fought 11 years. 

Did I mention that her husband also serves and is also of New York’s finest? 

What a family... 🙏

We met Jamey when she ordered a cross from us and we noticed she did artwork on the side. We’ve exchanged artwork with each other over the last four years. Then, last year for Christmas, we received a painted 2x4 scrap with a baby in a manger and star painted on it. 

Brandi and I knew it was certainly time to start that Christmas page on the website we had talked about and we definitely wanted Jamey to a part of it with us. So.. I sent her a blank cross to try painting on. I am so blessed to have the first one hanging in the barn of many to come. 

Jamey has unselfishly served God through every gift He has given Her. We are so blessed and honored to have this opportunity to serve along side of her, using our gifts together. 

Ready for what the future holds.

Jamey and her Crosses!

3.14 24/7

I am Loving these new Surrounded Sculptures!
I had a thing for the little rounds my dad cut out of the backs of the cabinets with his hole saw when I was little. I loved to feel of the shape in my hands for some reason and then I’d just wind up rolling them across the floor. I’d always try to make circles with a jigsaw early on and just never seemed to get them perfect. It’s because I’m not perfect. But God is! 3.14 24/7 https://divinecrosses.org/divine-sculptures

DiScussing the new Christmas Page :)

I love working with my wife any chance I get. One day we’ll both be full time in here. :)

This is a random scene of us standing across from each other just discussing things we need to do. She didn’t know I was taking pictures. Hehe.

Brandi in her Barn attire talking shop :)

I’m ready now

I was 28. I did not have a grasp on what I was doing, but I was apparently very serious about it! (Still wish I smiled) In 04 I wrote a letter to my local paper titled “To whom it may concern.” I wrote an actual letter! I said something about being the 7th generation in my family to do woodworking. Which is true. I needed to make money to raise our first son though and was grasping at straws. Anyway, I wrote a letter. :) A nice lady #Taris Savell called me one day and asked if she could do an interview over the phone with me. She said she saw my letter sitting on the top of the trash can and thought she’d take a chance on a story about me. I didn’t know her and she didn’t know me. I found out soon that she did a lot of interviews in her life! She interviewed Bette Davis, Ronald Reagan, played golf with Bob Hope, Lawrence Welk. Hung out with Eva Gabor, Doris Day, and too many more to list here! That day launched a whirlwind to come of people I’d never met suddenly showing up at my door who “knew” me. Southern Living wanted to interview me next! It was weird. I had a taste of something I wasn’t sure I wanted. This happened to me before when I was 5 and had a #1 song on the local Christian radio station. I soon found myself hiding in the baptism closet at church to avoid adults asking me when I was going to sing again... I felt like a jerk avoiding people and I felt like I was letting everyone down too. I wasn’t ready.. and I was really still just a kid here in this picture and I still wasn’t ready. God knew when I would be though! What I want to say is, thank you Papa Don Schroeder for hearing something in me and for putting me on the air. Thank you Taris, for digging my letter out of the trash and interviewing the least and never will be famous person you’ve ever interviewed. Fast forward 11 years to 2015. I was giving up.. I held a cross in the air crying and took a picture that went viral. And, here I am today, blessed beyond measure to be making crosses 7 days a week! I have something I want to say to all of you and it’s the last thing Papa Don said to me. God Loves you, and so do I. Thank you all for taking a chance on me now. 🙏

Pressed on all sides

2 Corinthians 4:7-9 We have this light from God in our human bodies. This shows that the power is from God. It is not from ourselves. We are pressed on every side, but we still have room to move. We are often in much trouble, but we never give up. People make it hard for us, but we are not left alone. We are knocked down, but we are not destroyed. (This post was from July 5, 2015. It is even more relevant today. ) This little flower seems fitting with this verse. Last fall we planted purple pansies in our flowerbeds. We never planted a white one. Yet here in the crack of our porch in the summer heat this little white pansy sprouted from seemingly nowhere and shines bright! Being pressed on every side it still continues to grow. Things press us on all sides everyday. Influences from everywhere intend to knock us down. We cannot be destroyed tho!! Let the world see God's light that is shining from within you. This little pansy did!

Onward Christian soldier

“Onward Christians Soldiers marching as to war with the cross of Jesus going on before.” It was time to rename this cross, just as the times seemed to have changed before our eyes. It was known as the Christian Flag Cross. It is now the Christian Soldier’s Cross. This was never a simple battle anyway, was it? It’s not something we can just wave a flag at as going to war. We can’t just make a stand and hope it will all blow over either. This is a constant and daunting spiritual war that we’ll have to fight head on with all our hearts, till the day we go Home. God save us. 🙏

Sixty Feet six inches

60’6” 

For the Spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power, love and self-discipline. - 2 Timothy 1:7

2006 

Daniel was five years old when they asked if he would throw out the first pitch at our local farm club’s game. 

He wanted to practice every singe day for a month to get ready. So we did! 

We started at 15ft away which scared me pretty good!  He may have had a “bad leg” as most called it but he had an “amazing arm.”

We got to the 60 ft mark in the yard and he easily put them in my mitt over and over. 

The day came for him to walk out on that mound and I proudly walked out along side of him.

They fumbled over announcing his last name and  it didn’t phase him.  I told him he could do it and right away he reached back and threw the ball. It dropped about 10 ft in front of the plate...

The crowd cheered and the catcher ran straight to him to shake his hand and give him the ball. He didn’t move... 

He was so disappointed he didn’t get it across the plate. He looked up at me and said “Dad? I get to throw it again don’t I ?” I reluctantly told him “No, that was it.” 

It almost broke my heart because I knew he wanted to prove all that hard work he had put in to get that ball across the plate. 

He was 5.. No one else expected him to get it across the plate. But He did! 

We walked off the field that day and the last thing he heard was a “No...that’s it.” 

He had a lot of surgeries, Botox injections, castings, and braces ahead of him after that. 

2010 

He made a fall ball kid pitch team 4 years later with the other kids no other team  wanted. He sat the bench a lot that short season. The coach really wouldn’t give him a chance. 

I sat in that dugout with him often. The other kids who sat with us  eventually stopped coming. Yet, Daniel still wanted to go to every game be ready for that moment he got to play. 

I told him even though we were in the dugout we had a job to do. We were a part of the team and had to encourage the others in the field. 

He had yet more surgeries ahead and braces to wear. 

I honestly thought that was it for him.. 

2016 

6 years later after his last Achilles lengthening surgery at the Shriners hospital he was wearing his long clay stained baseball socks. They were the only socks that would go as high as his brace did and made it comfortable to wear. 

The physical therapist asked him if he was a baseball player. He didn’t hesitate and said “Yes.”

I almost said something to him because it had been 6 years since he even stepped on to a field, but I let it go. I mean, what do I know? If he was a baseball player in his heart, then I knew that sometimes, that’s all it takes to be one. 

2018

One year later in his tenth grade year he tried out for his high school team. He didn’t make it... The JV coach approached him later at school and told him he wanted him on the team but the Varsity coach in charge told him “No.” 

I felt a range of emotions knowing that! I almost let all those emotions slip out of my mouth but I held them in for him. 

But, he wasn’t even given the chance... 

2019

In his 11th grade year he tried out again. He came home defeated with his head down. He told me he did horribly and that he might be done with Baseball. I supported him either way and told him that it was up to him.

Over the summer before his 12th grade year he was constantly at the community ballpark. He never asked me to go. He’d just go up there and throw to an empty home plate at the fence. 

As his senior year started he still wasn’t sure he wanted to try out again, but he’d go out to the baseball field and practice with the team like he was part of it anyway. He just loved the game itself and wanted to be a part of it. 

They had a new base ball coach this year so he decided to try out for the team the third and final time. 

I told him he had already went further than I would have. I was being completely honest with him and said that he had something I didn’t have. Because, I would have given up by now...

2020

He made the team!!!

On February 29, 2020. On a day that only comes around every four years, I got to see my son throw the ball across the plate again. :) 

They got three runs on him which were errors really, but he still took the blame on him self. He was pitching with a cut under his eye from a ball that hit him during warm ups. And he took a line drive in his “good leg” that left the imprint of the stitches in it! They miscounted the outs and he had to get four total... 

He literally had everything working against him and was playing hurt, but he struck out the last two batters! 

When he came in the coach told him to sit because he was done. It did not phase Daniel! 

After the game he said to me right away that he’s ready to throw again and wanted to get back out there. 

Is this a proud dad post? Sure it is, because I am proud. 

But it’s really not that kind of post. It’s about what God gave Daniel and gave all of us! 

He gave us a spirit that does not make us timid. It is a Spirit that gives us Power, Love and self-discipline. 

That is what people refer to as Heart ❤️. 

It can’t be given to you by anyone or taken away from you by anyone either. 

And.... 

A simple “No” won’t stop it. 

PLAY BALL Daniel!

We Love you and your Heart.

Can I throw it again?

Going Home

“You know the way to the place where I am going.”
John 14:4 

Yesterday Lord,
you welcomed home the most Beautiful blue eyed fiery redhead that you may have ever created. 
I want to thank you for her humor. She made me laugh like no one ever could. I will forever chuckle at her pointing her finger down the hallway and saying “On Jeeves!” as I wheeled her back to her room. 
No matter how serious life was she always had a way to make your cheeks hurt from laughing. 

I want to thank you for her kisses. As a child we made it a game to catch me to get them. I always let myself be a caught. 🙂 They were the best! 
And I really won that game, because I got to kiss her on her check last. 

I want to thank you for my biggest fan. She must’ve introduced me to hundreds of people in my lifetime. She’d always say “This is my handsome grandson Brad and he is with me today.” It was like it was her privilege that I was seen with her. It was embarrassingly awesome. 

I could write you a thank you note every day for the rest of my life about her. Because I can’t thank you enough Lord, for my NANNY.